sunk into the earth

Several unsettled contracts have not affected the company's expansion at all. In Xiao Huang's open-minded words, what do they, Cheng Sheng's old classmates, lack the most?What they lack the most is experience of failure. These people have been going smoothly since childhood. Books and movies talk about despair and hopelessness. They are only suspicious and barely sympathetic, but they have never experienced it. Now they come to the business that is most likely to fail. It would be terrible if it was still smooth sailing, and there should always be a chance of setbacks to know how much you are.

On the night of announcing the big failure, everyone opened a few bottles of champagne in the company, drank champagne and summed up the reasons for the failure. Their emotions were not affected by the several contracts that were negotiated and collapsed. Instead, everyone became more and more frustrated.This group of young people stayed in the conference room to discuss the future direction for a whole night, and they didn't break up until almost dawn.

Cheng Sheng leaned on the window of the meeting room and looked out, watching the dark sky gradually being covered by the light emerging from the horizon, but he was forced out by the ensuing business before he could enjoy a complete sunrise.

When winter was approaching, the company raised another round of capital, and soon recruited a large number of new employees. The office building on the first floor began to look narrow. Cheng Sheng discussed with several people, re-selected the site, and found a building that had just been built. An independent small building, no longer sharing a building with other companies.

Cheng Sheng's identity as a programmer was also completely deprived. The company was getting bigger and bigger, and the things waiting for him to deal with were no longer the codes in the computer. Free time to do the technical work that I was best at.

It was winter in a few days, and everyone put on thick clothes, only Zhang Chen still kept his summer clothes.He seemed to be naturally sensitive to the cold but not afraid of the cold. He insisted on running in short-sleeves in the morning when it was snowing heavily. When others walked upstairs in thick clothes, he fanned the wind with a towel.

Occasionally, Cheng Sheng saw him running in the morning downstairs in the company wearing earphones. His heart broke, and he immediately decided to cancel the plan to go to work early that day. He put his backpack on the bench and sat beside him to concentrate on watching him run.

Several colleagues who came to the company early passed by them, seeing Cheng Sheng holding his bag and supporting his head, they shook their arms and called him from a long distance: "Brother Cheng, what are you doing sitting down there?"

Hearing the movement, Cheng Sheng raised his hand to greet them, then turned his hand and pointed in the direction of Zhang Chen who was running on the other side without panting, "I'll wait for Zhang Chen, we will go up together when it's almost work time."

The others approached, seeing Cheng Sheng sitting bored under a snow-covered camphor tree, then glanced in the direction he was pointing, and chattered to Cheng Sheng as they walked towards the gate: "You and Xiao How come Zhang is as sticky as candied haws recently, his brothers are not as close as your brothers."

Cheng Sheng smiled at them: "He's very interesting, why don't you sit down for a while and go up later?"

Several people waved their hands again and again: "Forget it, forget it, the job is still waiting for us!"

On weekdays, the two of them could only flirt secretly, but most of the time it was only Cheng Sheng's unilateral flirtatious glances—sneaky winks at Zhang Chen during meetings, and hugging him from behind when he went to tea and coffee by surprise, but in this respect he always It wasn't Zhang Chen's opponent, as soon as he put his hand on this man's waist, he carried him to the table next to him and kissed him.

The sound of colleagues working outside came from the wall, and the sound of footsteps coming and going and typing on the keyboard fell into Cheng Sheng's ears. He found it exciting, as if he was having an affair in full view. He groped for a long time on the wall with his arms, and finally found the switch. He turned off the light, hugged Zhang Chen and kissed Zhang Chen for a while in the dark and narrow tea room, and separated their bodies when they heard the approaching footsteps outside, turned around and turned on the light.

When it was almost Chinese New Year, Zhang Chen drove him on a winter outing.On the way, Cheng Sheng asked him if he would go back to Yuncheng for the Chinese New Year, but Zhang Chen said no. He only spent every year with the Haiyan Band.

Cheng Sheng on the co-pilot volunteered and raised his hand: "I'm still here this year!"

Zhang Chen glanced at him from the corner of his eye and asked, "Aren't you going home to accompany your parents?"

"They are lively without my company." Cheng Sheng leaned on the car window and kept looking at Zhang Chen's side face while driving, and said for a long time, "Being with you is the most important thing."

Zhang Chen obviously didn't believe it, "Your parents must be more important than me."

Cheng Sheng glanced at the sky through the car window, and said to himself: "You won't be punished for saying this, right? It's too heartless." But soon he turned his head and said solemnly, "You are important."

At the end of this sentence, Zhang Chen on the side shook his head, "How dare you say that."

Cheng Sheng counted with his fingers: "Really, in order of importance, the first rank is you, the second rank is my parents and myself, the third rank is old Qin Changxin Frank, and the others are after that."

Zhang Chen finally turned his head to look at him, but only said: "Take good care of yourself."

Cheng Sheng pressed his forehead against the glass of the car, thought for a while, and sighed: "This is difficult, and we need to learn."

It was indeed such a truth. Zhang Chen realized that he didn't love himself very much, so he stopped embarrassing Cheng Sheng and said casually, "It's difficult."

There was a big bumpy dirt road ahead, and Cheng Sheng was dizzy along the way, and suddenly returned to the big truck that went to Yuncheng for the first time. He didn't ask their destination, and Zhang Chen had his own reasons wherever he went .

At the end of the drive, Cheng Sheng jumped out of the car first, and looking into the distance, there was only dry grass and reeds that could not be seen in the end.

Such a declining scene did not affect Zhang Chen's interest at all. He parked the car, unloaded a lot of equipment from the car, and said to Cheng Sheng, "The withered grass is also very beautiful."

He also told Cheng Sheng that he doesn't like the city very much, and that he always runs to the backcountry in his free time, and takes his musical instrument and computer to the snow-capped mountains and grasslands, where he plays the piano, writes songs and watches the sky, and waits slowly for a day with the dry grass and reeds as his company. Consume the past.

Cheng Sheng followed Zhang Chen to the reeds. He looked at the back of Zhang Chen carrying the piano in the setting sun. The fiery red light dyed his black piano bag brightly, and the wild plants around him were close to his chest. The cold wind in winter swayed, piercing his exposed skin from time to time.

Zhang Chen casually stroked his wind-torn hair, turned around and asked him, "Do you want to listen to music?"

Cheng Sheng nodded.

They found an open space and sat down, surrounded by short withered grass. Zhang Chen opened the guitar bag, and just halfway through it, he heard a surprised voice from the opposite person: "This is... the guitar I gave you?"

Zhang Chen nodded, but seemed to be talking about something unimportant, "I only have this acoustic guitar, but there are many electric guitars."

After speaking, he looked up at Cheng Sheng, and found that he was a little embarrassed, and kept rubbing his hands on his knees. After a while, Zhang Chen heard the person on the other side hesitantly asking: "What song do you want to play?"

"fly? me? to? the? moon."

Cheng Sheng lowered his head and whispered, "What an old song."

Zhang Chen looked at him, but quickly turned his head to fiddle with the guitar, "This is the first song I learned." After a pause, he said, "You taught me."

Cheng Sheng next to him raised his head, the embarrassment disappeared, and his hands moved from the kneecaps to the grass. The whole figure seemed to have finally regained consciousness.

He took advantage of the gap between Zhang Chen's tuning and kept approaching there, and finally leaned his head on his shoulder, looked at the setting sun that was about to sink into the horizon in the distance, and said deliberately: "Then I'm really good, I can play it by myself. Not so good, to teach a professional guitarist.”

He felt that Zhang Chen next to him was laughing at him again, as if everything he did was worthy of laughter, he was a little dissatisfied, and patted Zhang Chen's leg vigorously, urging him: "Hurry up, I want to listen."

Soon the sound of the piano sounded from the side. Such an introductory song was too simple for Zhang Chen. He didn't need to look at the strings and didn't bother. He closed his eyes and played in the wind, and people swayed freely with the cold wind blowing past him.

Cheng Sheng thought that Zhang Chen would never sing again, but Zhang Chen sang, as if not singing the lyrics was not his obsession at all, and whether to sing or not was his own choice.

The sky above their heads was slightly red, Cheng Sheng moved his head away from his shoulders, and moved his body across the dry grass to find the best angle to watch Zhang Chen play the guitar and sing.

Zhang Chen always plays the piano casually with his head down, but today is different. The slightly hot light of the setting sun in the distance hits his face, as if trying to melt his outermost shell that is not easy to approach.

Cheng Sheng was engrossed in watching, and kept his posture still, not daring to make any slight movement.

Zhang Chen suddenly stopped playing halfway through. He opened his eyes, stared at the opposite Cheng Sheng for a while thoughtfully, handed him the piano in his arms, and asked naturally: "You come to the second half of the song." .”

Cheng Sheng was caught off guard by his frequent surprise attacks, and was about to say "I forgot how to press the chords", but Zhang Chen said first: "Let me remind you." Thinking about it, he felt that this reason was not sufficient, and Add a sentence: "I want to listen to my teacher play."

Cheng Sheng couldn't refuse, and took the piano awkwardly. People who had played in the campus band before were as nervous as touching the piano for the first time. The first chord was not pressed firmly, and what to press afterwards was completely forgotten.

Just when he was about to give up, Zhang Chen on the side suddenly beat the beat and reminded him: "Am, Dm, G."

Cheng Sheng looked at him from the corner of his eye, and found that he was beating himself time with a very serious expression, his dark eyes were fixed on his face, the muscles around the mandible were tense, and his lips were pursed. What was he looking forward to, Cheng Sheng took it for granted that he was looking forward to returning to his previous appearance.

This kind of thought made Cheng Sheng a little excited, and he couldn't escape anymore, pressing his hands more tightly each time.He looked again, and found that Zhang Chen really relaxed a bit, and his facial expression gradually softened.

Zhang Chen is a more conscientious teacher than Cheng Sheng ten years ago. As soon as Cheng Sheng played the sound, he immediately reminded him of the chords to be pressed next, and kept his hand on his leg to beat the time.

After playing it, Cheng Sheng felt that the guitar he held in his arms was no longer so unfamiliar, and his hands of pressing and strumming the strings gradually became proficient. Later, the sound of Zhang Shen reminding him suddenly disappeared, and he only waited for Cheng Sheng to play by himself.

Cheng Sheng looked at him from the corner of his eye, and found that he was resting on the grass with one arm and resting his chin with one hand. He was immersed in the light from behind, concentrating on watching himself playing the piano.

After a while, he found that Zhang Chen took out the keyboard from the backpack next to him, connected it to the computer skillfully, and sang the song with him.

Cheng Sheng remembered this keyboard, which was much smaller than the models up and down the rows of Zhang Shen's recording studio. He put it in his bag and took it anywhere so that he could record inspiration at any time. It was also one of his carriers.

Two people are sitting opposite each other in the sparse dry grass, one is playing the guitar and the other is playing the keyboard, the afterglow of the setting sun is slowly disappearing, and the dim red light that is about to sink to the bottom shines on the faces of the two people, they are sitting like this on one of the most ordinary grasslands on earth , sitting in the setting sun and playing together Take Me to the Moon.

Cheng Sheng opened his eyes at first, but those long-standing music knowledge rushed into his mind like a movie. He seemed to remember something, and closed his eyes like Zhang Chen played the piano.

He felt that the two of them entered the same world, only the two of them.

After sweeping the last rhythm, Cheng Sheng put his hands on the strings and watched the music fade away. This familiar movement made him suddenly feel that he had returned to his former appearance.He put the guitar aside, straightened up with stretched arms, and said loudly: "Music can really make people enter another world."

But just as he supported his knees and was about to stand up, his shoulders were suddenly held down by someone next to him, and then his whole body was pressed on the grass.

The person on his body wrapped his arms around his waist and rolled him into a pile of plants higher than his knees.They hugged and rolled around several times, and the surrounding plants scratched and scratched their skin. Cheng Sheng felt itchy and didn't want to stop.Zhang Chen didn't seem to want to stop either, because Cheng Sheng heard his low laugh and felt the two arms around his waist slowly relax.Cheng Sheng concentrated on feeling the world of just the two of them in the gradually dark night, and finally couldn't help but wrap his arms around Zhang Chen's back, groping to find the location of the scar he had made on his back, and stroking him through his coat.

When he stopped again, Cheng Sheng heard his heart beating in his chest. He opened his eyes and saw the stretched skin in the center of his field of vision. His field of vision was so narrow that he couldn't see anything except this piece of skin. But within a few seconds, he saw layers of plants of uneven heights surrounding him, the sky above his head was turning black, and the fiery red sun behind Zhang Chen was about to completely sink into the horizon.

Cheng Sheng was panting a bit, and felt itchy from the surrounding plants scratching his body. He wanted to stand up straight, but the person holding him would not allow it.

He always felt that Zhang Chen's gaze could turn people red like the sunset that had just disappeared. Some did not dare to look at Zhang Chen, and moved his face to the side, but as soon as he moved, Zhang Chen stuck his chin and forced him to look at himself. Cheng Sheng saw himself in his eyes.

He watched obsessively, seeing his own appearance through the eyes of others—ordinary, cowardly, and without edges and corners. He had seen such a man in many literary movies, and the man who shuttled between high-rise buildings in suits and shoes every day found out that His wife cheated on him and jumped off the stairs. Students from prestigious schools, who were doing well, woke up and found that the financial crisis had hit them. They took off their suits, put on a repair kit and went door-to-door to sell their skills. Unbelievable and disappointed but always wanting to laugh, he opened his arms to the widest extent to embrace the people on the screen, but their faces still had that look of despair.

He looked into Zhang Chen's eyes, and remembered the winter when old Cheng was transferred to other places. At that time, his father had no wrinkles on his face, and he was wearing a neat navy blue woolen coat. Said in a loud voice: "You are the only child in our family, and the hope of our ancestors rests on you. Do you have to be brave enough to know?" If you want to learn, what is in people's minds? It's about worrying about the country, the people, and the world. Now that the conditions are so good, why don't you know how to cherish them?"

Gradually, the old Cheng in Cheng Sheng's mind changed. He was getting older, and he pointed to Cheng Sheng's nose and cursed: "You still play rock and roll? When you were young, you were forced to practice piano and violin. Why don't you see you being so active? Rock and roll are all low-end people. Playing around, playing around with your piano and drums on your back every day, standing on the side of the street like a group of hooligans, singing is rebelling against this and that, I think the one who should rebel is yourself!"

Soon old Cheng's face disappeared, replaced by the street scene of Yuncheng in [-]. Cheng Sheng squatted on the side of the road watching people coming and going, and found that the people on the road walked very slowly and rarely smiled. Seeing large trucks driving people on the national highway, seeing a few people in the vegetable market wrestling without dignity on the muddy ground because of the price of a few cents, and seeing Li Xiaoyun sitting on a pony in the courtyard and fanning herself, she tried her best to keep up with her surroundings. The woman spoke up, but the others looked back with contemptuous faces, only glanced at her before turning around in silence.

Cheng Sheng wanted to open his mouth to speak, but it was difficult for him to open his mouth. He tried his best to concentrate all his strength on the muscles near his mouth before he managed to squeeze out a few words: "Zhang Chen, I want to tell you something. Later I always Dreaming about that place in Yuncheng, dreaming about uncles and aunts Mingming, dreaming about laid-off workers who have nothing to do on the street gathering around the door of small shops and delis to play chess and cards."

After a pause, he continued: "I know you have always been curious about the reason why I became such a useless person. I used to be curious too, but today I know why, because you and this city have completely changed my worldview from the previous 18 years. Shattered, people whose beliefs and lives have been shattered are all my expressions."

Zhang Chen didn't speak, but Cheng Sheng felt that his warm breath was getting closer, and the air flow stopped above his eyelids, and then he realized that the corner of his eyes was kissed.

Cheng Sheng's hand around him gradually loosened, and stretched out into the red light of the setting sun that was about to disappear completely. He suddenly understood why Zhang Chen didn't like to write lyrics these years, because the language was too poor, and he had a lot of things to say, words stuck in his chest But he couldn't make a sentence, he tried his best to gesture to Zhang Chen, tormented, and put those emotions that rained and left into words and told him: "You are broken, but now you have grown up, I was broken, and I still need to be broken." Slowly grow."

He also said: "You are too independent, you don't need anyone, I can't catch you, so I am always afraid."

The last bit of light disappeared completely, and Cheng Sheng saw a crippled moon in the night sky. He hugged Zhang Chen, and suddenly hummed the song fly?me?to?the? His arm, but he didn't completely let go of Cheng Sheng's waist. After listening to the voice beside him for a while, he also hummed.

Then the two laughed together.

They hugged for a while in the dark grass, surrounded by the plants and insects that had survived the winter and were still alive. Zhang Chen propped his arms on the grass, suddenly straightened his upper body, and looked seriously at the lying on the ground. The sound of Cheng in the grass.

Cheng Sheng was surrounded by him, raised his head impatiently, stretched out his hands in the dark night, grabbed Zhang Chen's neck, and stared at him seriously.

His eyes were beautifully shaped, with large and bright pupils, staring at him without blinking.Cheng Sheng stared back at his eyes, and saw his lips move from the corner of his eye.

In the dark grass, he heard Zhang Chen say in his ear: "Cheng Sheng, let's live together, let's build a home just for the two of us."